iOS 6 vs. Android Jelly Bean

If you're looking to buy a smartphone or tablet in the next few months, we've got great news: you can choose an iPad or a Nexus 7, an iPhone or an Android phone, and it'll be amazing. These are all miracle-devices, capable of stuff that even ten years ago we could hardly imagine a phone or portable computer doing. With huge app stores to fill in any gaps your device might have out of the box, you (almost) can't go wrong.

But there's also bad news: no matter which device you buy, and no matter how much you like it, a whole lot of folks will think you're wrong just for owning it. If you haven't seen (for instance) Samsung's latest "attack ad," be apprised that there's a ton of people whose love for one mobile OS is rivaled only by their utter disgust for its rival.

Sure, we could be all diplomatic and laugh it off; but we recognize valid arguments coming from both sides, and in situations like this there's only one proper course: a fair-minded, well-reasoned comparison CAGE MATCH.

Games and Apps

Image: TechGadget

Games

There's plenty of grown-up reasons to get a top-quality smartphone or tablet. Still, whenever we see one, part of us has the same thought as when we got our first graphing calculators in high school: What games can I play on it? Maybe you don't care about gaming on your phone; that's cool. (Well, it's not that cool, but I mean, you can skip this section I guess.)

We said it last year and it's still true: iOS has a bigger and better library of available games than Android. The fact is, most developers - not all, but most - prefer to develop for iOS first and Android second, if at all. Reasons for this vary, but there are two big ones.

First: Hardware fragmentation means more choices for consumers, but it's a huge turn-off for developers. Consider what Imangi's Natalia Luckyanova had to say following Temple Run's introduction on Android earlier this year: "99.9% of support emails are complaining their device isn't supported. We currently support 707 devices. Mindblowing."

Second: iOS users have historically been overwhelmingly more likely to pay for apps. Six month ago, a survey found that two thirds of Android users had never spent a cent on apps. More recent data suggests that trend could be shifting, and we're optimistic that the debut of game-specific Android hardware like the Wikipad and Ouya could spur development.

For now though, Android definitely has some catching up to do.

App Store vs. Google Play

What about the rest of the apps? Well, there are a lot of these, on both platforms - like well into the hundreds of thousands. Apple will probably beat Google to a million apps, but not by much. And that number doesn't really mean anything anyway, because so many of these apps - again, on both platforms - are straight-up garbage. (Tablet-specific Android apps are an exception that we'd like to just see way more of.)

Still, a thousand (or even a hundred) apps for Android or iOS that are cool or useful or fun - that's pretty awesome!

Don't think there's an app for everything though: despite what its astronomical app-count may suggest, Apple is famous among developers for vetting apps according to stringent criteria. Sometimes it appears arbitrary; other times it makes sense (e.g. don't expect to see the µTorrent Beta on a non-jailbroken iPhone). Google isn't quite as strict, so while iOS may have more quality apps, Android apps tend to have broader boundaries for how they can interact with your phone. Android isn't exactly an un-regulated platform either though: just look at the version history for Grooveshark's app.

How about the app marketplaces themselves? Content suggestion is nothing to write home about in either app store (that's what IGN Wireless is for!), but both the App Store and Google Play have adequate search functions. The App Store actually got a major overhaul for iOS 6, and while this makes it easier than before to find useful apps, it's awfully slow on older devices.

Google's turn-by-turn navigation is better (even though Jelly Bean pushes it to a separate app), and with caching for offline map viewing it'll still work on the Nexus 7 after it's out of WiFi range. And there's walking directions, and public transportation, and Google's patently superior data-set - the product of a Maps workforce of more than 7000 employees.

Facetime vs. Hangouts

Both Jelly Bean and iOS 6 have excellent video-chat clients baked in. Of course, they're both proprietary, so if you're chatting across platforms you'll probably just want to use Skype.

Interface

Notifications, Social Integration

This one's almost too close to call: Jelly Bean's expanded email notifications are nice, but so is having notifications pushed to the lock screen. Yes, we know Apple borrowed the notification-drawer from Android, but iOS 6's Facebook- and Twitter-sharing fields are an excellent finishing touch.

Android's democratic APIs make sharing easy no matter what obscure app you're using; app-makers can (and do) build their sharing features to fit the OS. iOS 6 still handles Facebook and Twitter really well across the board, but its APIs are certainly more more restricted.

Cloud integration

Forget plugging your phone in to sync it: Jelly Bean and iOS 6 will both back up your data and sync it across the cloud for you. Android users had this option first, but iCloud brought most of the same functions (and a few new ones) to Apple devices. Either way, syncing or backing up your entire phone is a cinch.

There's a catch though. (Are you detecting a pattern here?) They'll only sync with their own services.

Again, almost a toss-up. Android's voice control is obviously better suited for searching Google. But Siri will launch certain apps and post to Facebook and Twitter.

Customization

Our two cents: both iOS 6 and Jelly Bean have a great default interface. But maybe you want to change the default keyboard or mail-app or launcher. Or maybe you hate clicking on the calendar app and you'd rather just have a home-screen widget. Or maybe video wallpapers just make you swoon.

Well, iOS won't let you do any of those things (without jailbreaking your device). Here, Android has a clear advantage - one of the best parts of Android is its deep-rooted customization options.

But maybe all that talk just makes your head spin: in that case, you may not mind.

Bloatware

Bloatware apps are like garden weeds. If you don't want it and you can't get rid of it, it's a weed. Maybe you use Stocks or Newsstand or Game Center. But a lot of folks never have. Now, as these apps are totally inessential to basic device functions, iOS should let you uninstall them, right? Guess again. We were glad to see Apple make the YouTube app optional, even if that meant we had to download it manually. It's just better to have the choice. And Apple has always refused to let wireless carriers put bloatware on the iPhone.

On the other hand, we've basically never reviewed an Android phone that didn't have carrier-installed bloatware on it. In fairness, it really isn't out of control on Jelly Bean yet: if you've got the 4.1 update (and you're not in Poland or reading this from the future) that means you're on a Nexus class device. Those have less carrier bloatware (i.e. only two lousy Verizon apps) than other Android phones. But Samsung's other phones (like the Galaxy S3) along with HTC's and even Motorola's probably won't come out as clean.

Learning curve

If you've ever rooted or jailbroken a phone, just keep on scrolling to the next section. But if you're a total smartphone n00b or you're recommending a tablet to your technophobic uncle, you'll want to ask how many of its features will actually get used.

We're not saying either UI sucks. Jelly bean and iOS 6 are both really intuitive once you know your way around. But if you're not comfortable going through the Settings pane, you'll probably have a simpler and more complete experience with iOS.

Jelly Bean lets power-users do a lot, but think about how many people will never set up their device to share photos over WiFi just because you have to dig through some settings to enable it. iOS is our "dumbed-down" mobile OS pick.

Hardware and Support

Hardware Diversity and Fragmentation

We won't beat this to death, but it's important to understand that the sword of hardware fragmentation cuts both ways.

Image: OpenSignalMaps

On the one hand, app developers hate it, and even as a user it's often possible to tell when a particular app hasn't been optimized for your device.

On the other hand, diversity means choice. Android users have dozens of budget to high-end hardware options. If none of them is quite as impressive as the latest iPhone, three new ones will close the gap within a few months. You can buy an Android phone with or without NFC, with as much or as little storage space as you need, with a big screen or a huge screen. Want to run iOS 6 on a bigger screen than the iPhone 5's? Well, there's the iPad.

Camera

There's a handful of Android phones with really awesome 8MP cameras, and decent camera apps. iOS 6's integrated Panorama feature is cool, but it's not exactly a killer app. So what makes the iPhone 5's camera better (which it is)?

Apple wrote the app and the camera's firmware specifically to play nice with this one piece of hardware. Google just doesn't exercise the same amount of control over its hardware partners, and if you use their cameras critically the difference begins to show.

Image: Pay4Bugs

Software Fragmentation

You may have seen sweet, clean Jelly Bean on the Galaxy Nexus, but it won't look the same on the Galaxy S3: Samsung skins the OS with its TouchWiz UI (and HTC installs Sense, and Motorola installs MOTOBLUR). Even if you like the added features, there's no denying they complicate the OS.

iOS 6 may be Apple's most fragmented mobile OS yet (with features like Siri left off older devices). But the iOS 6 user experience is still largely the same for each of them.

The waiting game

If it's important to you to get updates in a timely manner, there's just no contest.

It's been 11 weeks since Jelly Bean was released on July 9th this year, and its user-base is still under 2% of Android users. That's because it was only available to Nexus-class devices (and not even to all of them). That's a huge disappointment for such an awesome OS. We just weren't pessimistic enough to believe Google's promise at its I/O event - to ensure new devices get timely updates for 18 months after launch - was bogus. The maxim that when you buy an Android device, you're buying it "as is" still rings true.

The first roll-out of Jelly Bean to Samsung's non-Nexus devices comes better late than never, but at the risk of saying Apple would never do that!, well, Apple never has.

When a new version of iOS comes out, every device that will ever get the update gets it on day one. In this case, that gave it an adoption rate more than 100 times greater than Jelly Bean's. What that proves is that people want these yearly updates. Over 100 million devices upgraded in the first week it was available - just because it was available.

And the winner is...

Really? After all that you thought we were going to crown one definitive winner for everyone? It might make shopping simpler, but whatever we decided we'd ruffle a lot of your feathers - and with good reason.

Jelly Bean and iOS 6 are both great mobile operating systems. And they're both improvable. Frankly, we'd like to see them hug it out. No? Oh well, it was worth a shot.

Hey! What about Windows Phone?

Good question! We decided not to bring Windows Phone 7 into the ring (like we did last year) because it's just no longer competitive with the latest from Apple and Google. We're stoked about Windows 8 though, so keep it locked to IGN Tech for a full run-down of its best features and how it stacks up against the competition when it drops next month.

Jon Fox is a Seattle hipster who loves polar bears and climbing trees. He would like you to know that this does not mean he has an iPhone (not that not-having-an-iPhone makes him cool either; he just doesn't). You canfollow him on Twitter and IGN.